Stories of loneliness

"Kagome, tell me a story!" Shippou declared as the small party of friends sat around the campfire, they'd just finished having a nice dinner and were all sitting contemplating nothing important.

Kagome smiled and thought for a moment, "What would you like the story about?"

Shippou's little kitsune tail twitched as his eyebrows knitted together in concentration, "Something about you when you were little."

Kagome smiled warmly and thought for another moment, "Well, when I was around your age, Shippou-Chan I was-" Kagome soon started to explain what happened when she was young:

"Mama, what's this?" a small Kagome asked as she stared at the dress kimono that her mother was putting on her. "What is it mama?"

"Its called a kimono, people in the feudal ear used to wear it all the time," her mother said calmly.

"Oh," Kagome thought for a moment, "Why do I have to wear it?"

"Because we're taking a family portrait with our camera."

"Kagome, what's a ca-mer-ora?" Sango asked, interrupting, Miroku leaned forward, interested, Sango nodded her head and Inu-yasha merely twitched an ear towards her.

"Its like a painting," Kagome explained. She continued on to explain that while taking the picture, Kagome fell and knocked her little baby brother, at the time, whom started to wail and her grandfather thought he was possessed.

Everyone but Inu-yasha laughed.

Miroku chuckled, "that was quite a story, Kagome-Sama."

"It reminds me of what we used to do in my village," Sango said, laughter in her eyes, "every month, my father and I would go to the hut his close friend lived in and wear masks to surprise the owner. He'd always expect it, but he would act surprised to entertain me, I was very little back then. We would laugh and laugh, it was great fun, Kohaku would always wail and squeal when father would hop up behind him."

Soon everyone in the group was sharing a story about a childhood memory, even Shippou, and Kirara would mew her opinion when entertained. Even old Myouga would add in a story or two.

"How about you, Inu-yasha?" Kagome asked, laughing, her eyes twinkling.

Inu-yasha looked at her and sighed, his face scowling.

"Come now, Inu-yasha, please share," Miroku added in, Shippou and Sango nodded.

Inu-yasha was silent, "Fine, you want to know? Once upon a time, there was a little boy who lived with his father and his mother, and his stupid older brother. They all spent a lot of time together, but then his dad went away and never came home, his mother explained that he had died in a battle and his brother came home different, cold hearted and cruel. His mother was worried and so the two, the mother and son, moved to the forest so others wouldn't see the mixed-blood child. The disgusting hanyou.

"But soon the demons and humans who hated the hanyou came and the boy watched as his mother was killed right in front of him. The child ran for years and years, never able to really sleep, always with one eye open, eating what he could steal, and allowing himself to be beaten, even by humans. He had to stay away from the main roads, had to avoid his brother, had to avoid anything that wouldn't understand, he avoided everything. His only company was nothing. He was alone in the world and was miserable. He had no belonging place. He had no one who understood him, he had no friends. He eventually made a huge mistake, which involved his desire for power and his ability to be swayed by a miko and ended up sleeping for fifty years, his thoughts were filled with nightmares of seeing his mother die right before his eyes, the sneering looks on the youkai's faces. And through it all, he couldn't help thinking: Why can't I just die? Why do I have to continue living if all I'll ever feel is this never-ending pain? He has yet to receive his answer. The end."

The whole group was silent, the laughter was gone and the only sound was the crackling of the fire.

Inu-yasha stood up and hopped into his tree.

The group watched him go, there were some things they would never understand about their hanyou friend, but maybe someday he would allow them to share the pain.

Shippou was the first to speak, "who would live like that?"

Sometimes Shippou's naivety was too much.

Kagome stood and walked to the tree, she looked up at the still form of the hanyou. Sango and Miroku watched from their position near the fire.

"Inu-yasha," the hanyou looked down with pained eyes, "You're not alone now."

Inu-yasha stared at Kagome for a long time before his eyes drifted to Miroku and Sango, who were watching him as well. They were all smiling at him. Finally, he allowed a shadow of a smile, "I know…"

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Short and stupid